Losing sight of human rights

Published 5:51 pm, Monday, February 3, 2014

If someone approached you on the streets and asked you to define what it means to be human, could you give a reasonable answer?

We are all members of the human species, yet few of us appreciate and understand our rights as humans. Fortunately, there is a document entitled the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), drafted on the world stage shortly after World War II ended.

Our government was intimately involved in the writing and signing of this incredible affirmation of what it means to be a human being. The document is considered to be one of the most important of all time because it was ratified by every civilized nation. This declaration didn't come from any ideological view point, but arose from the horrific human rights violations of the holocaust and World War II. The governments of the world vowed never to let human rights be violated again.

I have read the UDHR numerous times and I'm always struck by how similar it sounds to our Declaration of Independence. Thirty articles make up the Declaration of Human Rights.

Article 1 states: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.

Many of the thirty articles listed in the UDHR ring true with our U.S. Constitution. Some, however, give me considerable pause.

Article 22 states: Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.

Does the richest nation on earth provide social security for every member of our society? It's hard for me to understand how nearly 25 percent of the children growing up in the U.S., the richest country on the planet, are living in poverty. Poverty is defined as a family of four that earns less than $23,050.

Article 23 says: 1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment. 2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work. 3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection. 4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

This country has always provided protection against unemployment, however that protection just ended in December for 1.3 million Americans who are the long term unemployed. The vast majority of these people are seeking dignified work. They want to work, but there are no jobs. Where is their social protection? The rest of the world considers this a human rights violation and at one time, we did also.

This is wrong and we need to express our outrage.

Article 24 states: Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.

Does your employer provide these basic human rights?

Article 25 states: 1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control. 2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

Forty-nine million Americans are food insecure at this moment. They don't know when or where their next meal is coming from. Forty-eight million Americans have no health insurance coverage. In 2013, every industrialized nation provided some form of universal health care for their citizens, with the exception of the U.S. Many countries have provided universal health care for more than 50 years and some for more than a hundred. President Teddy Roosevelt tried to establish universal health care in the U.S. more than 100 years ago. Why are we lagging so far behind in providing basic human rights? The Affordable Health Care Act is a first step in our playing catch up with the rest of the world.

We, along with the nations of the world, signed the UDHR in 1948 guaranteeing we would uphold these 30 basic human rights to the best of our ability. This declaration outlining human rights provides the backbone for the international community, through the United Nations, to intercede when violations occur. There could be no international agreement on what constitutes human rights violations without this universal declaration.

I believe our government needs to refocus on the basic human rights protected by our signing of the UDHR. Human rights are being trampled by the economic policies of austerity and trickle-down capitalism. These policies have essentially been in place over the last 30 years and the level of income inequality has grown exponentially.

We need capitalism to work in harmony with an effective government that represents the people and not special interests. We need adequate tax revenue to fund the cost of government. We need a federal jobs program to put our people back to work.

Education is the absolute key to ending the cycle of poverty. We need to expand public education to include pre-k and to provide opportunities for hard working Americans to move forward with their schooling into a trade school or college. We need to keep church and state separate.

We need to have and enforce effective gun control. Human rights are violated when one can't walk safely down a street in America. Everyone is equal under the law and no one's rights should be violated. It is time to end the politics of austerity and to focus on improving the human condition for all. Let's end the bad experiment of trickle down economics. Inequality has changed the face of America from one of hope to one of sadness. Thirty years of regressive policies will do that. Let's change the conversation and re-establish America as the land of opportunity.